Cleaning cage bare, removed all toys and perches.

I started by removing absolutely everything from the cage including bowls, toys, and perches. I got a bucket of hot water that I mixed dish soap and a little Clorox into. I cannot endorse this cleaning method in any way and don’t have a strong justification for this over other methods so it isn’t really relevant, tested, or proven. Substitute whatever cleaning agent you choose to use. Because of my own doubts about the validity of any cleaning solution for bird cages, I just try to use something mild and then rinse very thoroughly to leave no trace. I only use soap on the cage this way about quarterly. Other times I just clean with water and wiping.

Thoroughly washing cage out in bathtub.

Once I get started it’s easier to just keep going and clean everything all at once. Taking the time to do it, preparing the solution, getting wet, and working on it just makes more sense to do all bird stuff together. Usually I team up with my girlfriend and we can get things done much quicker by delegating responsibilities. She will soap and rinse everything in the bathtub while I take cages apart, deliver the parts, and dry thing when she finishes washing.

Washing out climbing tree.

We wash all perches, ladders, grates, and cages this way. I even shower out her climbing tree like this once in a while. It may be easier to hose down cages but since I don’t have access to a hose, doing it in the bathtub is the next best way. Since the perches soak in water and the birds chew them actively, I am especially careful at rinsing them out thoroughly and wiping away any trace of chemicals. Since my Senegal parrot’s cage is bulky, I normally wash it on the spot but the budgie cage easily fits in the tub. However, I’ve decided that once a year I will lug that big cage to the bathroom and stick it in the tub and clean it out completely. It was a bit of work but now the cage looks like new so I think it was worth it.

New cage layout after rearranging.

Since I neither remember nor care about restoring the previous cage layout, I use cage cleanings as a reason for rearranging the cage anew every time. I layout all available perches and swings from my small collection and pick the ones I want to use this time. I always try to arrange the cage differently. If the perches ran across last time, I try to run them depth wise this time. If the last time she had a swing, this time I put a spiral rope. By constantly changing the cage layout, it helps relieve territorial aggression, it keeps the bird challenged, and it makes the bird accustomed to changes. I am confident that if I had to replace her cage or move to another home, she would have no trouble adapting.

While I was arranging the new layout, I let my parrot watch from her carrier. I had to put her in there or she would fly over to check it out every 3 seconds and wouldn’t let me work. So she watched intently and when it was finished I put her in. Rather than panicking, biting, or getting shy as many unaccustomed parrots would have been, she was immediately excited. Her eyes lit up and she looked like a little boy on his birthday opening presents. She just had to climb on every perch, check out every toy, chew on every piece of wood. I know many parrots could have a panic attack from these alterations but if next time you get a bird, you keep this in mind and build this kind of relationship with novelty from the start, you can have a parrot that is  very open to change. And instead of causing them grief, you can give them pleasure in getting new toys and an exciting new cage layout.

Bond With Your Significant Other Through Your Birds

Together with our birds

Previously I wrote about bonding with family by having a separate bird for each member. This article is a bit of a personal story about bonding with my girlfriend, Kathleen, while also having a great time with our birds. Perhaps this will help you spend more time and your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, friends, or family as well as your birds by making it a conjoined effort.

Originally I had my Senegal Parrot, Kili. Unfortunately, Kathleen was not taking much interest in the bird and did not handle it much. She was afraid of being bit and did not know how to handle the parrot. Once in a while she might cue a trick but there was no real connection. Also it almost felt like the parrot was getting between me and my girlfriend because several times a day I would try to spend time with my bird, clean, and train it. Also, Kathleen was getting between me and Kili which would drive Kili’s jealousy and aggression toward Kathleen.

At first I tried to involved Kathleen with Kili more but it did not really work too well because Kathleen is scared of getting bitten and did not want to have to do extra chores like cage cleaning for a bird that wasn’t even hers. I did try to get Kathleen more involved but the distinction of Kili being my bird was more obvious than just my responsibility for her, she also is clearly bonded to me and doesn’t like being handled by others. While I could see Kathleen’s subtle interest in parrots and parrot training, I could also see her disappointment and distance when it came to my bird.

So I tried a different idea. I took Kathleen to the bird store and let her pick out a bird. We were in no way prepared to commit to a large or noisy bird at the time. You see Kathleen is away for weekdays and visits me on weekends most of the year but lives the summers with me, this is why I could not allow her to have an overly demanding bird because I would have to be taking care of it half the time. Naturally the bird would have to be smaller than a Senegal Parrot and cheaper too. I could not afford another bird like that and there was really no need. To help Kathleen overcome her fear of birds, something small and cuddly was the answer. So it came down to getting a budgerigar.

Duke, all white dark eyed clear budgie

Kathleen picked a shy looking little white one. He seemed to be bullied on by the other budgies in the tank but this was probably cause he was smaller and younger. He wasn’t so shy anymore when I reached my hand into the tank to try to take him out. He kept running around and slipping out of my hands every time I’d try to get him. Finally when I did get him out he slipped out of my hands again and jumped to the floor. When I picked him up off the floor he continued to bite me repeatedly. I had no idea that a little budgie that size could hurt from biting but they do it repeatedly and dig under the skin. Didn’t seem all that hand tame for a “hand raised” budgie. I think in the case of these budgies, hand raised really just means not parent raised because they were not tame at all. The “hand raised” larger parrots I’ve experienced are far tamer and friendly around people.

On the drive home we contemplated possible names for our new little feathered companion. Most of them we tried to allude to his all white feathers. You see, this little guy is a very special mutation of budgie. Normally in the wild they are green with yellow but there are special captive bred mutations. However, he is not an albino which is evident by his dark eyes. Instead he is a dark eyed clear which is a blue and white budgie minus all the blue. We ended up on the name Duke, alluding to his all white feathers carrying a regal sort of nature and also the Genesis album, Duke.

Kathleen with Duke

Almost immediately she fell in love with Duke whom I affectionately refer to as “a little mouse with wings.” Taming and training began from the first day home. We wanted him to be used to hands first and foremost because he’d have all the time in the world to get accustomed to his cage. Kathleen got to taming him and was not afraid of his bite. She was able to overcome fear of getting bit by him and nearly as quickly Duke overcame his fear of being grabbed by her. Kathleen followed up on this by teaching him his first tricks: target, turn around, jump through ring.

Kathleen Training Duke

Finally Kathleen had something to do involving birds and felt a part of the experience. While I would spend time petting Kili, Kathleen has Duke to pet. When I train Kili, Kathleen can spend time with Duke. While I work on cleaning Kili’s cage, Kathleen cleans Duke’s, etc. So instead of having periods of time when I would be with my bird and my girlfriend alone, now we both spend time with our birds together. Bird time also became a bonding time for our relationship as well. In effect we spend more time together by spending time with our birds. It even makes mundane things like cage cleaning more fun because we can talk and spend time together in the process. Things get done this way because we watch out for each other and the birds.

Love Birds

Sometimes it may take getting another bird to draw someone into being involved with the whole bird owning lifestyle. It makes sacrifices for the sake of birds more reasonable as well when everyone has a bird they are responsible (like no teflon, chocolate, plants, etc). By giving someone a bird, you give them the responsibility but also the fantastic feeling of being loved by their bird.

I’m sure if you’ve been following this blog, you have heard by now the importance of tracking your parrot’s weight. A bird’s weight helps you read the bird and realize things that may not otherwise be obvious. Weight can sometimes tell you the mood you can expect from your bird and the level of motivation you might find when training. A bird that is full will be less likely to be active in training that a hungry bird. On the other hand a starved bird might be overzealous in training and do a poor job as well. A steep decrease in weight can alert you to illness or health problems in your bird.

Weighing your bird and its food is a lot simpler than you might think. What I did was simply buy a cheap digital food scale at Target for like $15-$30.  I really forget how much mine cost but I know they have various scales in that price range. My scale can measure weights up to 11lbs and can display in ounces or grams. I choose grams because it makes the numbers whole and easy to remember. I am not really comparing my bird’s weight to other birds but only to themselves over time so the accuracy of my scale does not really matter. Even though the scale is pretty small, it could handle the weight of up to the largest macaw.

Getting a bird to stand on the bare scale could be a bit difficult, especially to keep still and get a reading. This is why I made a simple homebuilt perch that I place on top of my scale. I put it on the scale and then turn it on. The scale automatically tares to zero so the weight of the perch becomes part of the scale. Now I am ready to measure the weight of my bird. I place the bird on the perch so its just a simple matter of “step up.”  I usually wait a few seconds for the weight to stabilize and take a reading. Then I just ask the bird to step off.

Weighing my birds has become so routine that they almost look forward to doing it to get it over with. They know that they have to stand calmly on the scale a little while everytime before entering or exiting their cage. I usually weight them when I take them out and then again when I put them back away to see how much their weight changed from the treats during training. I will often weigh them again after eating a meal to see how much they actually ate.

Having such a scale is also convenient for weighing out bird food if you are doing a specific weight management program. You can tare the scale and then place the empty food bowl on it. This will weight the bowl. Let’s say the bowl is 50g. Now you pour the food into the bowl and stop when you have poured the desired amount in. If you wanted 10g of food, you go till 60g. The reason I don’t tare the scale with the food bowl is because when I take the food bowl with remaining food back out, I want to be able to weigh again to see what is left. If I only weighed the food before, I would have to pour the food out of the bowl to get a good reading the second time. Instead I just read the weight together with the bowl. So if it now reads 54g, I know that 6g was taken out.

A reason why I personally stopped weighing my bird’s food is that I realized that it’s more accurate to weigh the bird before and after feeding than weighing the food. Birds play with the food, drop it, and throw it around. So just because the bowl comes back 6g lighter, doesn’t mean the bird actually ate 6g. This is why I just weigh the bird and skip weighing the food. I’ve gotten good at eyeballing how much food to give my bird so that she eats it all and doesn’t leave too much to be thrown out.

Some people will chart their bird’s weight. This is especially important for people with a lot of birds. Since I only live with two birds I know their weight ranges quite well off the top of my head so I am not worried about charting exact details. I know when my bird is high and when it is low so it’s not a big deal. Heck, I’ve gotten pretty used to their eating patterns and can usually guess their weight before weighing them.

So if you don’t already have a scale for weighing your bird, this is a quick and cheap solution to being able to track your bird’s weight and health. A scale is something I think no bird owner should be without.

I recently visited a carnival/street fair in my neighborhood and was appalled to see a game with a budgie offered as the prize. It was like put money on a number, they spin the wheel, and if you win you get a budgie. They had a couple cages no bigger than my budgie Duke’s cage but with like 30 birds crammed in each. They were literally crammed in shoulder to shoulder with no room to turn. Normally, when crammed in tight spaces birds will fight for territory but these were crammed so tight that even fighting was not possible. The budgies looked lean and sickly. They were not active but then again there was no room to be active. Even though seeds were served in abundance, it looked like access to them was restricted by countless bodies so feeding must be tough. The conditions looked in no way sanitary. The players and even employees would stand around the bird cages smoking and poisoning the birds’ air supply. But all of this is not even the worst of it.

Carnival game: spin the wheel to win a budgie

The kinds of people who might play the game and win one would be clueless what to do with it.  I found out that even if you win a bird, it doesn’t come with cage or feed, just the bird in the box. They have some cages hanging around that they try to sell to people who win a bird but there were only a few cages available and many more birds. I am afraid that these birds are doomed to a poor life because the people who “win” one aren’t giving it the same thought and care as someone who specifically goes out to a breeder or bird store with the knowledge and specific intent of buying a bird to care for. While perhaps some of these birds could get lucky and make their way into good homes, I am sad to say that most will not receive that kind of life.

The people who would participate in such games are going from game to game winning teddy bears for their girlfriend or kid. Parrots should be brought into households that are prepared for the tasks required for bird ownership, not just by the flick of a wheel and fortune. This is a live animal and more than that, a social animal that needs special care. There were also two other games that let people win a fish or iguana and while I think those are in danger as well, the birds moreso. We did a game and won a goldfish  and we actually won 4 last year. I didn’t keep the fish but I gave them to someone I know who has a fish tank and takes good care. The birds on the other hand need special care and social attention. Someone who wins one at a fair could not possibly know how to take care of it, feed it, groom it, socialize it, train it, and occupy it with toys. At least when people buy them in a store there is a chance for the salesperson to try to upsell them into buying necessary supplies.

While I don’t believe there should be government involvement or regulation of captive bred bird sales, I do think that stores, breeders, or other bird vendors have the responsibility to give people the complete rundown on ownership of the bird. Unfortunately stores don’t want to scare away their buyers so they just make it look all great and fun and people don’t realize what they are getting themselves into. Someone on youtube messaged me saying that they got a 14 month old sun conure yesterday and that it seemed nice yesterday but went on a biting/destruction rampage today. I told them something like “the bird was just being shy yesterday and sounds more at home today, welcome to owning one…”

Say no more...

While it was tempting to try to win a budgie because I really like these birds, I refused to support such cruelty and blatant negligence. Nobody plays to lose, but I didn’t want to risk winning a bird and then contaminating my flock or having it die on my watch because it was undernourished to begin with. It’s an unfortunate case and I feel terrible for the birds and even for the people who might win them. I wouldn’t be surprised, sadly, that most (or all) of those budgies be dead within a year. Carnival prizes are rarely kept around for very long.

Hyacinth Macaw

There are feathers everywhere in my apartment, from little gray or green ones to large white ones.   Do I mind this extra mess?  Not even a little bit!  It signals the end of breeding season, which is a beautiful thing.  Of course, the one rule I have learned when it comes to parrots, is that there are no rules, only guidelines.  So I will keep my fingers crossed that there are no more temper tantrums, unruly behaviors or diva-like dramatics from my cockatoos.

Molting is an annual exchange of feathers, out with the old and in with the new, typically following breeding season.  Feathers are replaced year round, as you might have noticed when a clipped flight feather magically becomes whole again, but the big molt will follow breeding season.  As usual, nature has things well under control.  Because both egg and feather production take so many nutrients from the hen’s body, they won’t occur at the same time so as not to be too depleting.  There are many birds that line their nests with feathers molted after the eggs are laid and prior to hatching.  It’s a good system.

Rose Breasted Cockatoo

As feathers regrow, they poke through the skin as a prickly little stubs covered in a keratin sheath.  These are known as pin feathers and are uncomfortable to the bird if they are bumped or pinched.  My umbrella cockatoo’s head is currently covered with them and I try to use a gentle touch during cuddle time.  He lets me know if I have been careless.  Yours will too.  Some birds get a little moody during this new growth period, but it is short lived and generally mild.

You will notice that there is a blood supply at the base of the new feather.  This blood supply delivers the nutrients needed for the continued growth of that feather, and recedes as soon as the feather is fully developed.  If yours is a un-mated bird, you will have to preen the areas that he can’t reach, such as the head and parts of the neck, by removing the sheathing around the new feathers.  This can be a great bonding experience between you and your parrot.

Amazon Parrot

During this time, a diet rich in vitamin A and calcium is a good way to help him with feather production.  Orange vegetables like sweet potato and carrots and dark leafy greens like kale, chard, and mustard greens are a good choice.  Scrambled eggs, shell and all, and cooked chicken and lean meats are good source of calcium and protein.  Frequent bathing and misting will help keep the irritating itching to a minimum.

Stress, injury, illness and poor nutrition can interfere with, or prevent, your birds molting process.  My umbrella cockatoo missed an entire molt last summer following an illness.  Many of his feathers were raggedy and worn looking by the time he replaced them this year.  Check to see that the new feathers have grown in without abnormalties in color, markings and condition.

Some cool feather and molting facts:

* When a bird molts a wing feather, he will automatically molt the corresponding feather on the other wing to provide a balance and stability during flight.

* Feathers comprise 10% of a bird’s body weight and they weight 3 times as much as their skeleton.

* Even a small bird like the parakeet has between 2000 and 3000 feathers on its body.

* Small birds can have their first molt weeks after fledging, while larger birds might not molt until 9 or 10 months of age.

I taught my Senegal Parrot Kili to do the bat trick right out of parrot magic. It was fairly easy to teach it to her because she was already very hand tame. Getting her head down out of the fetal position was a bit more work but nothing unmanageable. Just like the play dead trick, the bigger challenge and most time consuming part was to get her to put her head down. Teaching the basics of the trick does not take more than a few days but then getting the bird to stay still and keep head down during trick is what takes months of perfection.

I even went so far as to teach my parrot to do the inverted fetch that you can see at the end of the video. This took zero training because the bird is so smart that it totally figured out to fetch her ball and drop it in the bin (from the bat position) the first time I tried it. She made the connection and it is just super cool to realize the bird is so smart.

We even taught our budgie to do the bat trick. I told my girlfriend that I didn’t think a budgie could do it but she liked the trick a lot and wanted to try anyway. Unlike the Kili, Duke the budgie wasn’t very hand tame and definitely did not like being held upside down. When we started teaching the trick, Duke would bite and try to get out of our hands. Although it took a few weeks to train the trick, by the end of training, he was a far tamer bird and would tolerate being held in just about any angle and way. Hands on trick training is also a great way to tame your bird to hands and make it less bitey. If a budgie can be taught this trick, I cannot imagine any parrot being unable to do it.